Happy Birthday
by Fepholi
Summary: It’s Legolas’s birthday! Just how old is he, anyway…


Happy Birthday

Summary: It's Legolas's birthday! Just how old is he, anyway…

Disclaimer: I don't own Lord of the Rings or anything related to it. I have a cool bookmark, though.

In this story Aragorn and Legolas are best friends, or at least close ones. It takes place anytime before Moria (because Gandalf's still alive). I also think that Legolas is the youngest child, so I made up some older brothers and a sister, but they never make an appearance, they are just mentioned.

Legolas stared at the sunrise. He had been up for two hours contemplating his birthday. It was a special age for elves, a sort of coming of age time. His Ada had even planned a grand party, inviting hundreds of guests to celebrate, but then Legolas had been chosen to represent the elves in the Fellowship.

So here he was, it was his birthday, and only Gandalf and Aragorn knew about it. He heard someone approach and turned. It was Gandalf. He had a knowing smile. "Thinking about your family?" Gandalf asked.

"Yes, and my sister's coming of age. She was so excited and the party lasted well into the morning. That was the latest I had ever stayed up back then," Legolas replied wistfully.

"I recall your brothers had similar parties."

"Yes, but I wasn't born at the time or I was too little to remember," Legolas said.

Gandalf reached into his voluminous robes and pulled out a parcel. He handed it to Legolas saying, "Thranduil gave this to me a while ago. He had a feeling you wouldn't be home for your own party, even though he never expected you'd go on this quest."

Legolas carefully opened it. Inside were two beautiful twin daggers. They had ivory hilts and golden designs on the hilts and the blades. "Thank you, Gandalf." (You never see him use them until Two Towers, I think, so this could be possible.) He twirled them experimentally and then strapped them to his back, alongside his quiver and smiled radiantly.

Gandalf chuckled, "Don't thank me, thank your father once you return."

The rest of the fellowship was now waking. Aragorn ruffled through his pack for something, found it, and walked over, carrying his pack. He dropped it and grabbed Legolas's shoulder in a one-armed hug, leaning in. "Happy birthday, mellon nin," he whispered, placing something small and cool in Legola's hand, and pulling away a bit.

Legolas looked down. It was a delicate-looking outline of an arrowhead, with intricate designs in the center, on a thin mithril chain. He put it on, and tucked it under his tunic. Then he grasped Aragorn's forearm tightly, "Hannon le, Estel," he whispered back. He pulled Aragorn into a hug.

Aragorn stepped back and rummaged through his pack for something else. He pulled out a pair of vambraces and handed them to Legolas. They were strong leather and had elvish designs on them. "These are from 'Dan and 'Ro, you know how they are too lazy to get you separate gifts."

"Yes, and if confronted, they would just say that I received one vambrace from each of them." Legolas slipped them on.

"True…You know, you still haven't told me how—"

"And I'll never tell you."

"But, Legolas…"

"If I didn't tell you when you were a child, I certainly won't tell you now."

They were cut off by quiet chuckling. They both turned and realized Gandalf was still there. (So did I.) He stopped laughing and said, "Aragorn doesn't know your age, Legolas?"

"Not for lack of trying," muttered Aragorn.

"All he knows is that I'm younger than the twins and Arwen," Legolas interjected.

"You know how old he is, right Gandalf? Will you tell me?" Aragorn asked/pleaded.

Legolas shot Gandalf a look that promised a painful death if he told Aragorn. "I am sorry, Aragorn, but if Legolas doesn't want you to know, then I will not spoil his fun. But I will tell you this: His current age is a major milestone for all elves."

"That doesn't help much at all! He could be anything from 1000 to 3000!"

Legolas and Gandalf both hid smiles. Aragorn didn't notice, for he was to busy trying to narrow it down even further.

The rest of the Fellowship had prepared breakfast and were eating. Gandalf, Argorn, and Legolas went and joined them. When Legolas sat down, Pippin noticed his new vambraces, "Hey Legolas, where'd you get those?"

"They were a birthday gift from Estel's brothers." Immediately, Legolas was cut off by a rush of apologetic hobbit voices.

"It's your birthday!"

"We're so sorry, we didn't know…"

"I wish I could have gotten you something."

"How old are you now?"

The last question, voiced by Pippin, quieted the others. The hobbits (and Aragorn) leaned in eagerly. Legolas had a soft spot for the hobbits, finding them adorable and funny, and didn't hesitate to find them food when they were hungry or do other small deeds to make them happy.

"Well…I am one of the younger elves in Middle Earth…"

"And…" demanded an impatient Pippin.

Legolas looked around, straining his senses for any distraction at all. His head whipped to the left. "Orcs," he muttered harshly. 'Thank the Valar,' he thought.

Immediately, the Fellowship went alert.

"There's a small group of them heading our way from the east. They'll be here in five minutes," Legolas stated.

"Legolas, Gimli, come with me. Boromir, stay with Gandalf and protect the hobbits," Aragorn ordered. The hobbits didn't protest because this had happened before and they knew not to argue.

Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas headed in the direction of the orcs. When the orcs were just in sight (to normal humans), they stopped and hid themselves, waiting for the orcs to pass so they could ambush them. Gimli gripped his axe tightly. Aragorn silent drew his blade. Legolas carefully nocked an arrow and drew back the string. The orcs came.

There were ten of them. As the first one passed, Legolas let his arrow lose. He immediately nocked and fired another one. Gimli and Aragorn jumped out and started hacking and slashing away.

The orcs were too close to shoot anymore, so Legolas pulled out his knives. He then gracefully started to attack the remaining orcs, whirling away.

When the last one was killed, the warriors cleaned their weapons and (Legolas) retrieved arrows. Luckily, nobody was injured. The finished up and traveled back to the rest of the Fellowship.

"So Legolas," Merry said cheerfully, after the hobbits were reassured that they weren't hurt, "You were about to tell us how old you were."

"Was I?" Legolas asked, feigning ignorance.

"Yes you were, mellon," Aragorn answered happily.

"I…justturnedfivehundred," Legolas said in a quiet rush.

"What was that, Legolas," Frodo asked.

Legolas sighed, and looked anywhere but at Aragorn, "I just turned five hundred," he announced sulkily.

Aragorn stared at Legolas for a moment. Then he burst out laughing. "You're only five hundred!" he exclaimed.

"Only? But five hundred's really old!" Merry said.

Aragorn smiled, "Yes, but compared to—"

"Don't say it Estel. This is why I didn't tell you."

"Compared to what?" Frodo pushed.

Aragorn opened his mouth to speak. Legolas lunged and covered his mouth.

Gandalf laughed and said, "Compared to a human's life, Legolas is relatively young."

"How young?" Pippin asked.

Aragorn pulled Legolas's hand away. "He would be equivalent to an eighteen-year-old human."

"But that means you've just come of age!" Sam exclaimed.

Gimli laughed, "They sent a mere child to represent the elves?"

Legolas scowled, "I may be young compared to other elves, but I have been in battle for over two hundred years! I've seen more fights than most elves twice my age, and I am one of the best archers in Middle Earth."

Aragorn hastily said, "Now Legolas, I'm sure he didn't mean anything by saying that…"

"Humph," Legolas and Gimli both said.

Aragorn continued as if he hadn't heard anything, "But you must admit, it _is_ surprising. I thought you were at least one thousand, and I've known you since I was six."

"Well now everybody knows, and it doesn't change anything. I am still the same elf you knew before. You have just all learned something new about me," Legolas told them, daring someone to say otherwise. There was silence.

Frodo smiled, a little too much and said, "Okay then, let's get going, shall we?"

Everyone agreed and the Fellowship started another day's journey to Mordor.

THE END

I saw on some website that Legolas was "not even five centuries", and somehow it made it seem that five centuries was important to and elf, so I wrote this. I took the random orc attack from a Flash comic. It was hilarious: the Flash and his girlfriend were talking about marriage, and then suddenly, it said, "And out of the blue, ninjas attack. Thank God."


End file.
